Saving Souls

Pardon?  Baseball starts this weekend.  We’ve got a nationally ranked baseball team again.  We’re ranked in the top 25 in the country before the season starts.  Last year we finished 14^th in the country.  We were one hanging curve ball away from the College World Series.  We should have kicked Clemson’s butt.  But, nevertheless, okay.

We were ahead in the 9^th inning, and they took the College World Series away from us.  But we finished 14^th in the country.  Athletics is a very important part.  The women are not playing tonight.  The women are playing Saturday.  How many of you have been to men’s games, let me see your hands.  How many of you have never been to a women’s game at ORU?  Oh, where have you been all my life?  Got to support them all, you guys.  Got to support them.  The women play on Saturday afternoon, and the guys on Saturday night.

Then, you know, we have this big ESPN game the following weekend, which is going to be on ESPN-U, which is in millions and millions of homes across the country.  It will be the first time in many years that ORU has been on national television outside of our own Mid-Continent tournament.  And that’s not a conference game.  That will be against Utah State.

Oh, lots of things coming up.  You’ll see alumni in chapel in the morning.  Tomorrow morning, tomorrow’s chapel, I’m going to give you a video of what happened in Niger.  I don’t have time to show you the whole thing, but you’re going to see at least 25 or 30 minutes of what happened in it.

And so that’s going to be my message tomorrow.  There will be no preaching tomorrow.  The video will do the preaching for me.  And I think you’re going to be blessed.  We’re just working on it this morning.

How are you this morning?  Father, in Jesus’ name, we thank You for this class and for every student in it.  Thank You, Lord, for not just academic learning, but thank You for an impartation of Your Word into our lives today as we continue to talk about the gifts of the Spirit.  Thank You for Your blessing upon our lives.  In Jesus’ name we give You praise and thanks, and everybody said amen.  Amen.

Kelvin, did I see you in the back?  UMKC tonight, right?  You know, we’re first in the Mid-Con.  We’re in first place.  And we’re playing UMKC tonight.  I saw their bus over at the hotel, and they need a good kicking, you know.  We need to kick them real good tonight.

And then, you know, here’s how I like ORU to play basketball.  I like to see us up by 10 and then just stand on their neck and win by 20, win by 30, don’t be kind and say, “We’ll let you back into this game.”  No, I don’t like that, you know.  You know, once you get ahead, then just kill them.  That’s what I like.  I believe in Old Testament basketball—no prisoners!  Kill them all!

And then we’ve got Southern Utah Saturday night at Homecoming, and we’re going to have a big crowd Saturday night because we’re going to have a lot of alumni on campus.  And there’s a lot of focus now.  We’re coming down toward the end of the season.

How many of you have not yet been to a basketball game, and you would admit it to my face?  What is your problem?  Don’t you understand it is a part of this university?  Don’t you understand that God said, “Go into all the world,” which means you have to go into every person’s world,” and that means athletics?  And Kelvin said amen.

How did I know?  Well, I knew because God gave me a word of knowledge, “He wants to quit smoking.”

So I just said to him, “How long have you wanted to quit smoking?”

He looked at me and said, “Over 20 years.”

I said, “Would you like to stop right now?”

“Yes.  Well, how did you know I smoked?”

I said, “Because about three people down this line, the Holy Spirit said to me you wanted to quit smoking.”

He said, “Well, that’s the confirmation I’ve been believing for.  That’s why I’m in this prayer line, that you’ll pray for me to quit smoking.”

So I laid hands on him.  And I don’t know what happened afterwards.  I hope he quit.  But, anyway, that was an operation of the word of knowledge.

Here is another example.  In 2 Kings 6:8-12, 2 Kings 6:8-12, this is the story of Elisha and the king of Syria.  Every time the king of Syria, who was in a war against Israel, every time the king made a battle plan against Israel, God would give a word of knowledge to Elisha and tell him the battle plans of the king.

And the king thought he had a spy in his own camp.  The scripture says, “I have a spy in my own bed chamber.”  In other words, “Someone who’s very close to me is an informant, you know, a double agent, and providing information to Israel.”  No, it was God providing the operation of the word of knowledge to the prophet Elisha.  And Elisha knew the battle plans as soon as the king had made them.

And there are times in your life when suddenly you know something about someone.  And you say, “Well, how do I know that?”  We’d say, “I sense.”  Well, it’s not your senses.  It’s not your sight, not your taste, not your touch, not your smell.

This happened to me last week when I was walking out of the home of the President of Niger.  The President had asked me if I’d go to his home and pray for his wife, who’d had a mild stroke.

And while I was there, the gift of prophecy came on me over his daughter, who’s been educated, a graduate of King’s College in London.  She’s 27.  And God gave me a prophetic word for her.

Then when I walked outside, all of the security guards, the chef, the driver and half of the President’s wife’s staff wanted hands laid on them.  And the word of knowledge began to flow, and people began to get healed.  And I stood there in the drive trying to get out to go back to my hotel.  That happens whenever God chooses.

All right, now the word of knowledge is supernatural information.  It’s somewhat akin to the word of wisdom.  Where the wisdom helps you to know what to do in a situation, the word of knowledge provides information to you about a certain condition.

For example, I was praying one night in a healing line over people, and I came near a man.  And the Lord said to me, “This man wants to quit smoking.”

And like an idiot, I said, “God, how did You know that?”  You know, I have that kind of relationship with the Lord.  When I talk like that, I usually wind up repenting afterwards.

But the impression came back, “Trust Me.  I know.”

And so when I got to him, as I started to lay my hands on him, I just said—and there was no evidence.  I didn’t smell any smoke, you know.  You say, “Well, you saw a pack of Marlboro’s in his pocket.”  No, I didn’t.  “Well, you smelled it on his breath.”  Well, I was four or five people away.  I couldn’t smell his breath.  “Well, you could smell smoke.”  Look, I was in a big crowd of people.  I couldn’t smell or see anything.